Let me explain.

Of all the places I have been to in the world (which are not many – US, UK, Malaysia, Singapore and of course, India) and of all the beautiful structures and beaches I have seen, none have given me as much satisfaction or calmness as Worli Sea Face in Mumbai. Sure, the different structures and beaches are intricate, beautiful, magical and all that. However, Mumbai is a gorgeous city and the Sea Face more so.

There is something about the Sea Face that I can’t explain. There have been innumerable occasions in the couple of years I was in Mumbai when I visited the Sea Face with palpably different moods – happy, cranky, sad, angry, joyous – but the outcome of walking away after spending some time at the Sea Face was always one – calm. Absolute calm. People tell me that water, rather, large bodies of water tend to have that effect on the mind. I disagree. Having been to multiple beaches, rocky or sand, US or Asia, I can safely claim that the assumption is not true. In fact, I have been to some beaches which have made me crankier or angrier than the opposite.

I was first introduced to the Sea Face the day I stepped in Mumbai in June 2005, the start of my corporate career. I had a MBA senior working in Mumbai who graciously invited me to put up at his place while I search for other accommodation. As fate would have it, he was put up at Worli, only a stone’s throw away from the Sea Face. When we trotted down to the Sea Face that evening, I was a bunchload of questions – Where do I stay? How will the job be? How will Mumbai treat me? etc. When we finally sat on the promenade of the Sea Face, a sense of calm swept over me after some time. The kind of calm where you just sit there and enjoy the view – no past, no future – just the present and present only. By the time we got back late night, I didn’t care for the answers to the questions I had. I was just happy being there.

Or probably, as the behavioral scientists would call, I have a bias. ‘I love Mumbai and hence love all the beaches in Mumbai’. Sure, I certainly like the Chowpaty beach or the Aksa beach for different reasons, but certainly don’t love them. Or, ‘being the first beach I visited in Mumbai, I have a bias and an attachment to it’. That being the case, I should love the first beach I visit in any city I live in. Not true. Whenever I want to think of a beach, I still imagine sitting on the parapet wall of the Sea Face, watching the sun set against the buzzing traffic in the background, waves crashing against the rocks in tune with with joggers clashing into each other. Technically, the sea face is not even a beach. I care less.

Why, I even had a dream of owning a house someday on the Sea Face.

That was 2006.

The dream still continues. I still am bloody sure that I will own a house on the Sea Face sometime in the future. The problem though is the calm might have disappeared. The much touted Bandra-Worli sea link has been opened and this link ends on the Sea Face on the Worli side. Last I heard, the Sea Face is crowded, with loads of pollution and a crap load of noise. I hope all those reports are not true. I still hope whenever I go to Mumbai, I will find the Sea Face as it was in 2006. Calm and serene. The only constant thing is change – yes I know. But there are certain things which are beyond reason and logic. This is one of them.

Here’s cheers to the Sea Face – the calmest of them all.

P.S - Totally unrelated to the blogpost, but…

Have you guys watched the rage of JK Wedding Entrance – a couple’s wedding in the US that currently has about 5 million views? If not, definitely definitely watch this. Strongly recommended. It is awesome. I just couldn’t stop smiling all the while watching the video (already married folks might feel a tad bit jealous, but thats ok!) The song in the background goes ‘It’s like I have waited my whole life for this one night’. Nothing is more apt for the song than this video.

And then, some folks come up with this. I thought I was a wee bit cynical but I am not even close. Watch this. Awesomely hilarious!

We share a special relationship, C and I.

It all began in the second year of Engineering, way back in the year 2000. We were this enthusiastic bunch of people who were gung-ho about the IEEE student organization in the college – more so, because it gave us an official reason to bunk classes. C and I were from different classes, and although we would meet and talk – I never imagined that she would fit anywhere in my scheme of friends. It was a typical acquaintance-friendship which you kind of assumed would eventually taper off after Engineering.

However, it wasn’t until the year 2002, when C and I were in this group of paper-presenters to BITS-PILANI that I really got to know her quite. The entire trip was one rollicking fun (I don’t remember laughing as much in this trip along with the trip I made to REC Warangal prior to this one till date). The comfort level with this entire group grew tremendously, along with understanding C with her quirks and habits. As I knew her back then, she was a bright girl, too lazy to study but very enthusiastic to learn – and that impression holds till date (yeah, probably make that tooo lazy for today!)

Then came CAT preparations – we were put up at one center to write the mocks. C, I along with one common friend used to chit-chat about everything under the sun, but CAT. The entire group of test takers in the room (other than us) used to look down on us (probably even smirk, and call us names) – but insensitive as we were (and are) to the world’s views, we happily ignored them and probably continued to chat even more vigorously.

Life did take us to different destinations for the next two years after Engineering – but we met again in Mumbai. This time, she was at IIT and I was put up in an apartment very close to IIT. This effectively entailed that we meet every other day – take a walk down the beautiful, winding IIT campus (I used to hate those walks, she used to love them), sit on a bench just beside the lake and talk philosophy (for eg., what is the purpose of life? etc (scary, no?)), eat out in almost all the restaurants in and around IIT, dinner at The Taj on whim (was my little dream to have dinner at Taj and she pushed it to reality) among many other million things. During this period, we got to know each other very well (most of the time, eye-contact was enough to guess what was on the other’s mind) – I thought I was absolutely crazy with some of my thought processes and hence very unique; I was totally surprised to find a crazier reflection of mine in her J

In the course of time – which was last year and on this date (January 24^th), she got married to a handsome young man P. It’s been one year since – and this one year went in a blink, hopefully has been brilliant for both of you. I had this good fortune (actually, they had the good fortune to host me ) to camp at their place for dinner for almost 3 months (I know, I know – shameless; tell me something I don’t know!), where I got to know P much better – you guys make for a fantastic couple and I wish you a happy married life for many many years to come.

The dinner at Taj, birthday on Marine drive, sumptuous dinner many a time, being there for me when I most needed you and many more things in life – you’ve made things with this friendship I never thought were possible. For the risk of sounding childish, let me just say that there are only few ‘true’ best friends – and you just top the list!

C- I also want you to know that our lives will continue to change in the years to come, like it has these last few years. People will come in and go out of our lives, and we will continue to forgive, forget and move on, trying desperately to seek the happiness that we believe is ours. And though I hope not, there may even come a time when you and I may go on for years without as much a single thought about each other very deeply.

If that does happen, I hope all this comes back to us someday. Many, many years later, when we’re old and unwanted, staring into the starlit sky sitting on a bench across a lake -

I want you think of me then and
let your eyes swell up a little
and if your pride permits
maybe even shed a tear

for all the memories we have shared,
good, bad and the ugly
for you C
A Thousand times over!